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Alcarazza (PAP)
right|400px| right|400px| right|400px| Alcarazza, Sp. From Al-Karazah, the Spanish-Moresco term for those vessels of porous texture used for cooling water, which M. Brongniart classes under the term of hydro-cerames. The alcarazza (Fig. 67) is called in Portugal alcaradza. The hucaro, made in Estremadura, is red, and less porous than the alcarazza.Spain has been ever celebrated for its manufacture of Hydroc^rames or watercoolers. " The ancient Qooleh of the Arabs is identical with the modem Alcarazzas of Spain. They were made of various shapes, many and especially in Valencia and Andalusia being of the unchanged identical form of those similar clay drinking vessels discovered at Pompeii. They are the precise * Trulla.' Martial, iv. 46, xiv, 106, speaks both of the colour and the materials of those rosemade at Saguntum, where they are still prepared in great quantities ; they are not unlike the ancient Choolehs of Egypt, which are made of the same material, and for the same purposes, and represent the ancient Canobic arariKa (Statika). They were seldom destined to be placed on the table, as their bottoms being pointed and conical, they could not stand upright. This singular form was given to the * vasa fictilia,' or cups used at the sacrifices of Vesta, which would have been defiled had they touched the ground. The Alcarazzas are now made in large quantities at Andujar, in Andalusia, "Hand-BooTc of Spain. These vessels have been made from the most remote period, in all warm climates, in Spain, Egypt, and Asia. The water-coolers of Egypt (Fig. 68), called bardach, are now made at Khenneh, in Upper Egypt, in large numbers; and are so cheap, that one is seldom used a second time. They are very thin, and are perfumed by placing a piece of gum mastich upon a lighted coal, and inverting the vessel over it.Athenaeus mentions that vases were made at Coptos perfumed with myrrh, mastick (Schinus, Gr. ; Pistacia Lentiscus), and other aromatic plants, which deprived the wine of its intoxicating property. These substances must have been introduced after the baking of the vessel. They have not varied in form from the ancient type.A great portion of the population of modern Egypt is engaged in making pottery, which is transported down the Nile in a curious manner. A quantity of jars are placed perpendicularly, and lashed with the fibre of date to parallel poles, forming a triangular raft, upon which the conductor is seated, and floats down the Nile, retailing his cargo as he goes. Water-coolers are made in Persia, at Cora, according to Chardin, who was in that city in 1672. They are white, and are first moistened with rose water^ and afterwards suspended enveloped in wet cloths. These coolers can be used only five or six times, as the pores are soon stopped up.Chardin, Voyage en Perse, t. i,, p. 202. The ancients were weU acquainted with the process of producing cold by the evaporation of water. We find that the soldiers of the army of Antiochus cooled water in vessels of clay, which they put during the night upon terraces, where children were employed to keep them moist; thence it was poured into large amphorae covered over with straw, which kept it fresh. In the time of Galen, vessels of earth filled with water were suspended in the windows, in order that the current of air might render it cool.Brongniart, t. i., p. 540. These vessels are not of use in the temperate climates of Europe, their efficacy depending upon a high degree of temperature, and a dry atmosphere. Categoría:Glosario EN A A Categoría:Diccionario A